Seattle wishes
by Vaultboy101
Summary: After the destruction of almost a whole Brotherhood squad at the hands of the Enclave, a Brotherhood retrieval squad finds immense trouble while trying to find the bodies of their dead brothers.
1. This is my rifle, this is my duty

Chapter 1: This is my rifle, this is my duty...

A patrol of Brotherhood Soldiers marches down a small alley way between the Key Bank and a small bar, a  
>block over from Broad St. Seattle, on the intersection of Wall St. and 1st Avenue. It's cramped, dank, and a dead<br>man lies on his side with a large plasma burn on the side of his face, the Key Bank is 3 stories high, letting  
>little light come through the sky, the bar is in shambles, it being only 2 stories high. Pieces of brick fall from<br>the decaying buildings above, and tings against the Titanium plates of the soldier's Power Armor. Theses are  
>average conditions in the Seattle area, donned the City of Metal Death by the locals too terrified of the Enclave<br>to even stir at night.

Skulking along, the soldiers hear a hearty metallic laugh from somewhere close. The first thing that races  
>through each mind of the patrol: Enclave. The Brotherhood Knight Captain, newly ranked, holds his fist up, then<br>opens and closes it, signaling for the squad to stop and crouch. He checks his compass on his visor screen, it  
>reads west, then he sneaks forward to peer around the building to the streets ahead. He holds his breath, and his<br>Laser Rifle, tight as he creeps forward to meet his most likely demise. His mind tells him to stop, but the man  
>just keeps advancing, determined to make a good impression during his first patrol into the Enclave hot territory.<p>

Just around the corner, to the right, four Enclave soldiers stand around a car talking nonchalantly like  
>they were on their Pre-War coffee break. The man creeps forward, takes his helmet off, and places his head against<br>the brick, hoping the vibrations would travel down the brick from the end of the street, the BoS soldier being 20  
>feet away.<p>

"So, Gerard's the new Elder huh?" inquires one of the men propped on the car. Two soldiers were propped on  
>it; one was sitting on stone slab that looked like it might have fallen from the building they were standing near,<br>and the last was standing in front of the other three. Two donned Tesla armor and Plasma weaponry, one had on  
>Hellfire armor and had a Heavy Incinerator in his lap, and the last, the one standing, had an officer's uniform on<br>with a Viroblade Chainsaw strapped to his side and a P3-SD model Plasma pistol beside, for easy access.

"Last I heard he was," replies the standing man, "he was one of the highest ranked members of the  
>degenerates when they came in."<p>

The Knight Captain didn't care to hear anymore. He turned to face the squad which was peeking out from  
>behind a dumpster about 5 feet away. When they saw him, they knew they were outmatched. The squad consisted of one<br>Knight Captain, one Knight and two Junior Paladins. They way the Enclave group acted, they seemed as if they didn't  
>have a care in the world. Probably a veteran squad. The Knight Captain looks back around the corner, after putting<br>his helmet back on, and takes note of the surroundings. Across the way there was a bakery, a tax attorney's office,  
>and a hair salon all with about 4 cars in front of them. He looks back to the soldiers and notices something on<br>their outfits. They have DC style Enclave insignias. The Seattle base's insignia consisted of an E with an eagle  
>plastered in front of it, with four stars one the right, left, top, and bottom. This one consisted of an E in the<br>middle with stars surrounding the whole thing.

The man turned around and motioned for the soldiers to come forward. He was going to have them engaged,  
>because they were dealing with a squad of Enclave soldiers that DIDN'T have the home field advantage. The Enclave<br>squad hadn't been there as long as the rest of the Seattle Enclave, therefore they knew about as much as the  
>Freshman Brotherhood. The soldiers all stood up and crept forward a bit with their guns raised (all Laser weaponry)<br>and ready to strike anything that would come around the corner. They knew that the Plasma weapons of the Enclave  
>could burn straight through their T-45d Power Armor no problem, and they wouldn't stand a chance without the<br>element of surprise.

Thank Steel that back in New York the Brotherhood had A. taken control or destroyed most of the bunkers where the  
>Enclave engineers and scientists worked with blue prints and armor experimenting, and B. taken over their means to<br>create armor. Intel suggested that New York was where the Enclave did most of their manufacturing, from producing  
>Nuclear Power from the Ronto Lake, to creating weapons and armor for their Vertibirds to ship to bastions all over<br>America. The New York area had been one of the most valuable assets to the whole U.S. Enclave. That's why the  
>Brotherhood spent so much time and resources in the area.<p>

The Knight Captain peeks out again, this time looking to see what the Enclave was doing, before getting  
>startled by the explosion of the Officer's head. A bullet had pierced his skull from somewhere close. A bullet. Not<br>thinking, the Knight Captain swings around in an irate movement to confront the squad behind him. To his surprise,  
>plasma isn't flying at him, and none of his soldiers are doing anything but standing there. He peeks back around<br>the corner to see the soldiers are frantically firing at the building above them. At what, the Knight Captain can't  
>tell.<p>

Seconds later, he knows. A group of local gang members all dressed in ragtag scrap begin to fire at the  
>Brotherhood soldiers from the opposite end of the ally while screaming, "Get the heck out our turf you metal jerks!<br>We're tired of your fighting in our town!" assuming that they owned the town of Seattle.

The Knight Captain didn't want to fight the locals because of their already bad rep in accidentally killing  
>civilians during a fight to get the Enclave out of one town, but before he could even protest the fighting, the<br>gang members were already shooting. They had small arms such as 9 Millimeter pistols, small .32 Caliber rifles, and  
>one had a small M14 Assault Carbine. There were 5 in all at the end of the alleyway. Before the Knight Captain<br>could even think to order, the soldiers were already firing.

He could hear pings and pangs coming from all over the place as bullets bounced off the metal of his T-45d.  
>One even hit the visor of his power helmet but he didn't react. It was his first patrol out and he was already<br>botching everything. He had been trained to fight locals, not Enclave and having both of them here was really  
>backing him into a corner, that wasn't really there. He could back the squad out of the alley way into the street<br>with the Enclave soldiers, but they would attack them and most likely kill them, or he could have his soldiers try  
>and fight from the cramped corridor, and make things severely awkward and most likely dangerous for them. If one of<br>the gang militants had any explosives, the soldiers were as good as done.

As one of the front soldiers drops to his knees, the rest knew it was time to go. The Knight Captain had  
>been thinking that there was no way that the gang members could have armor piercing rounds, but he was wrong. The<br>M14, carried by what looked like the leader, was loaded with AP rounds. They wouldn't be much problem in a  
>semiautomatic gun, but this was full auto and kept pounding over and over again into the soldier, until it cut<br>through the armor indefinitely.

The Knight Captain, with his scrambled train of thought, screams over the gunfire, "It's time to go!"  
>before backing out into the street with a plasma grenade in his hand, ready to be thrown. On of the Junior Paladins<br>takes the liberty to grab a hold on his same rank counterpart and drags him along into the street. When everyone  
>was clear the militants had begun to advance forward, but not before the pin from the grenade had been pulled and<br>the grenade being thrown through the air. It lands right at the leader's feet, not even giving him time to react,  
>and explodes, rocking the foundation of the two buildings and sending them crashing to the ground on top of the<br>men. The Knight Captain releases a sigh of relief but turns to the bigger threat than a measly gang.

The Enclave Officer, and the group, had been walking when a gunshot rang out from the building above them.  
>When his head exploded, all of the soldiers reacted accordingly. DC had been a wild and unforgiving territory,<br>seeing as how they were in a hostile area in which they didn't have any control in. Well, except the Purifier. That  
>led to the Enclave catching hell from every local they came across. They usually didn't have much problem thanks to<br>their superior technology and weaponry, but it defined the soldiers so much to be attacked that it didn't matter  
>what happened. They didn't think. They shot. Laser beams and Plasma goo were flying at the assailants who were<br>perched up in a window in the above building. That is until they poured out from the alleys. All except one  
>militant group. They had been caught in the explosion of two buildings a few feet away.<p>

The Brotherhood squad was ready as soon as they hit the street. For the explosion, and for the fight that  
>ensued. The Enclave soldiers finish mowing down the last enemies with only one casualty. The Brotherhood also had<br>only one casualty, that one Junior Paladin being dead by several bullets piercing through the gut area of his  
>armor. There stood three Brotherhood soldiers and three Enclave soldiers in a stand off, staring each other down<br>through their respective visors, seeing who would make the first move. The Knight Captain, with his Tri-Beam 33d48  
>Laser Rifle in had, stands there, dumbfounded on what to do. Seconds pass as they stand there in the stale mate,<br>but the Knight Captain thinks to himself that it feels like an eternity.

He's terrified, having just gotten the rank a week before, and has no clue what to do. Should he fire?  
>Should he surrender? If he surrenders, they would most likely die. If he fights, they would most likely die. It was<br>a lose-lose situation, and he wants to be back home. As his throat tightens up, he realizes what he has to do. Not  
>die. And to do that, he must fight. His arm dangles down by his side, with his rifle in the other. He makes the<br>motion for three, two, one, then balls it into a fist, before dropping to the ground and firing. The rest of his  
>soldier drop with him and begin to fire rapidly. Their Laser beams barely do anything at first, but then begin to<br>bore into the Enclave as they stumble. They soon regain balance, start to withstand the bullets, and begin to fire  
>back.<p>

The Brotherhood soldiers duck out of the way of the balls of fire lunging from the Heavy Incinerator, and  
>try their best to get out of the way of the Plasma. One of the soldiers in Tesla armor ducks behind a Pre-War car<br>on the left side of the street. The Knight Captain begins viciously firing at the car, hoping for it to catch fire  
>and explode. A few seconds later, a pop sounds and the car begins to flame. It explodes within close proximity to<br>the Enclave soldier, who was trying to reload his jammed Plasma rifle, and sends him flying backward, with the  
>whole front of his armor peppered by flying scrap. The other two soldier jump out of the way of the explosion and<br>duck behind a piece of rubble from a collapsed building. The Hellfire trooper lands on his Incinerator and smashes  
>the gas control, sending waves of kerosene out of the front of the weapon and into the air.<p>

The Hellfire soldier stands up with his partner and peeks out from behind the rubble and the car in front  
>of them to the quiet BoS soldiers. To their surprise, they aren't there. The Brotherhood soldiers had taken off<br>while the Enclave was down and was tending to the wounded in an alley more than 30 feet from the battle scene. The  
>Hellfire Trooper grabs the Officer's Plasma pistol and the Tesla armored soldier grabs his Plasma rifle then they<br>both take off after the Brotherhood soldiers.

The other Junior Paladin had been shot in the arm with a Plasma burst and it had burned straight through  
>his Power armor. His arm bleeds from the burns and the popped blisters that run the length of his forearm. The<br>Knight tries to bandage the wound but it has burnt down to the tendon and has frayed a few nerves, leaving the  
>Paladin in immense pain. They try to keep him from going into shock, but they can't and he begins to spasm and<br>jerk. His helmet wasn't removed before hand so the other two soldiers have no clue that he has bitten his tongue  
>and that he is slowly suffocating. About a minute later he stops flailing and calms down, but has stopped<br>breathing. They grab his Holotags and cross his limp arms around his lifeless chest before they emerge.

The Knight and Knight Captain get up off the ground and leave the soldier lying there. They start moving  
>south east in the direction of the Seattle University campus in which the Brotherhood of Steel has set up a base of<br>operations temporarily, until they can get to Fort Lawson on the other side of the Enclave held Seattle Center  
>compound. They are cut off as the two remaining Enclave soldiers begin to fire at them from 10 feet behind them,<br>and are forced to duck back into the alley they had been giving first aid to the Paladin in. As the Enclave  
>soldiers rapidly fire at the alley way, hoping for the Brotherhood soldiers to poke their heads out, the Knight<br>Captain and Knight shake each other's hands, in respect for each other if they didn't make it out. They grab their  
>guns and jump into the street, laser beams flying, in the last ditch attempt to fight their way home. They both<br>knew that they have probably aroused the whole Seattle Center, seeing as how they are only about two blocks away  
>from the compound, but they continue firing anyway.<p>

The Knight Captains whole life flashes before his eyes as he pulls the trigger over and over again.  
>Watching the red beams fly from the rifle, the Knight begins to shake, probably in fear that he won't make it out<br>alive. As the Knight Captain quickly shoves another Micro Fusion cell into his Laser rifle, he wishes he would've  
>stayed at the University that day, instead of going on recon patrol for the first time. It was his choice to go<br>out, and his choice to skulk dangerously close to the Seattle Center and his choices had cost the lives of several  
>locals (that would probably had died anyway, due to the fact that they hadn't meant to stumble upon the<br>Brotherhood, but the Enclave), and two rising Junior Paladins that caught in the crossfire of his stupidity.

Was it something he had to prove? That he could get in and out of Enclave hot territory with no problems?  
>No, he didn't have to prove anything. But he wanted to. He wanted to show that the rank shift also affected his<br>experience shift. He wasn't thinking of the fact that experience came with practice, not titles. He was afraid he  
>wasn't cut out for the job but the feeling of the higher rank pushed him to do something idiotic. Idiotic is<br>exactly what it was. They were low on ammo, they were low on men, and they were in completely hostile territory.  
>The DC Enclave soldiers probably wouldn't take them as prisoners, because they weren't used to that. They were used<br>to killing everyone, taking everything valuable to them, and using it for their own nefarious schemes. That's just  
>what they did.<p>

As beams and glops of goo fly back and forth, the Knight screams to his partner in a frantic tone. "Jesus  
>Christ! I'm out of Micro Fusion cells! I'm done for!"<p>

Determined to keep at least one person other than himself alive, the Knight Captain tosses his last cell to  
>the Knight, unknowingly depleting his own ammo supply. He himself reaches for a cell but finds that he's out, so he<br>throws his gun down and ducks behind a car. He looks to the Knight and calls back, "Go on. Get out of here. There's  
>nothing else you can do."<p>

In a disturbed and shaky voice, the Knight yells back to his commanding officer with a question. "What!"

"You heard me. Go!" As the Knight takes off running, the Knight Captain jumps in front of the path of the  
>goo emissions that were flying towards the novice. They hit him, and batter his body all to hell and back, leaving<br>him lying there on the ground, limp, and lifeless. The Knight goes to turn his head, but decides against it and  
>keeps running. He knows what has happened to the CO, because he saw him drop his gun and take out what would save<br>the Knight.

The Knight Captain begins to squirm, and the Enclave soldiers run towards the downed body to deliver the  
>finishing blow to his head. As the Hellfire Trooper holds out his Plasma pistol towards the Brotherhood soldier, he<br>smirks behind his mask and says, "We are so getting promoted for this."

The Knight Captain can't help but laugh, but stops when he is kicked by the Hellfire Trooper. Burns race up  
>and down his body, leaving him almost immobile because of the pain, he manages one more laugh before saying, "Th-<br>there's no pro…promotion in your future…"

The two Enclave remnants laugh before the Tesla soldier speaks up and asks, "Oh why is that you piece of  
>shit?"<p>

The Brotherhood soldier rolls onto his back smiles, even though he knows the Enclave soldiers can't see it.  
>He feels victorious, even at the cost of losing his own life.<p>

The Plasma grenade he had hidden up under him explodes, burning through the Enclave Hellfire Tropper's  
>armor, leaving him on the ground dying in even more pain than the Knight Captain. The Tesla armored soldier died in<br>the blast, almost instantly. The Knight Captain had died a few seconds before the blast, being spared the pain of  
>more burns to ravage his body.<p>

14 city blocks away, the Brotherhood soldier stops for the first time since he had started running. It had  
>been almost an hour since he had escaped the battle, and at least half an hour since he had left Enclave thick<br>territory. He stops and removes his helmet, then lets out a big sigh of relief before falling to the ground. He  
>didn't know if the Knight Captain had made it out alive or not, but he had a feeling that he wasn't just going to<br>throw the grenade and run. That's what the Knight had hoped for, but since the squad CO should've caught up with  
>him by now, he begins to expect the worse.<p>

As he slowly rises to his feet, he can see the sign for the Harborview Medical Center, another BoS base in  
>the area. It looks like pure heaven to him as he begins to make his way towards it, and looks even better when he<br>reaches the entrance to the walled fortress. He collapses at the door, staying awake just long enough to see a few  
>Paladins rush out to gather up his unconscious body.<p>

His armor is stripped from him, he's giving some medicine to keep him asleep so he can get over the  
>exhaustion, some medicine is also applied to the Plasma burn that his adrenaline had covered the whole way home,<br>and his Holotags are collected. When he awakes, the first person there to visit him is the Elder. Elder Nicholas  
>Gerard. He smiles at the boy of only 22, but it slowly grows into a frown. He nods toward the burn wound on his leg<br>and asks, "Who did this to you son?"

The Knight can vaguely remember the fight the night before, but manages to come up with an explanation to  
>his wounds. "My squad was attacked by locals and was chased into Enclave hot territory." He sighs as he retails the<br>event.

"Bradley. Bradley Giffords. That is your name?" asks the Elder.

"Yessir," He replies quickly, "named after my pa." He speaks with a thick southern accent, noting,  
>unmistakably, that he was from the DC chapter.<p>

The Elder smiles again, thinking of his time in DC before being shipped to Seattle. He looks back to the  
>boys leg and then into his eyes. "Are you the only one who lived?"<p>

He quickly replies again, "Yessir. My CO risked his life to save me…The other two Junior Paladins died  
>first..."<p>

"Where were you when this confrontation happened?"

Three hours and several city blocks away, a Brotherhood recon team made up of three Paladins, two Knights,  
>and a Knight Commander make there way out of a back alley that Junior Paladin Franklin Monroe died in a day before,<br>when he succumbed to his wounds, they find the bodies of three men lying in the road, completely untouched for some  
>odd reason. One of the Paladins walks over to the dead man in Brotherhood T-45d Power armor and looms over him in<br>complete silence, for respect.

He reaches down and removes the man's Power helmet to reveal a smiling face, littered with grime and dirt  
>from the wasteland outside. He can't help but smile to himself behind his own Power helmet at the content dead man<br>below him. The Paladin pulls out his Ripper he had brought specially for this mission and begins to cut away at the  
>Power Armor of the Knight Captain. Once he reaches his Holotags, he takes them and hands them to the Knight<br>Commander who looks them over.

He reads them aloud, "Knight Captain Jakob Mears, Id no. 34316. Age, 24 years, no birth date. Virginia  
>native, transferred from DC to Ohio to NYC before being transferred here."<p>

The soldiers from the recon squad all sit in silence as they stand around the dead body. They strip the ID  
>tags and the armor from the Enclave soldiers out of spite, so they won't be identified by the Enclave pick up<br>squads, if they even come. The armor is taken because the scribes requisitioned it be scavenged. The Enclave had a  
>knack for leaving their dead soldiers lying exactly where they died, because they didn't want to waste time<br>cleaning up the bodies. They left it to the locals to clean up THEIR mess. It was unconstitutional, if the  
>constitution mattered any more.<p>

As they get done desecrating the dead bodies, the second recon team emerges from the rubble filled alley  
>the patrol squad had exited the day before, 30 feet down the road. They stand in front of the Key Bank, on the<br>right side of the street, and look towards their comrades down the road, all having another moment of silence.  
>Across from them, both buildings they can see have collapsed, leaving no mention of what they are. The Key Bank<br>behind them has also succumb to its old age, plus the stress of a Plasma grenade impacting it and the Bar beside  
>it, leaving a mess of brick and rubble that the Brotherhood soldiers had to comb through to get to their brother.<p>

On a pack Brahmin's back lays the body of Junior Paladin Marco Hesston, the man who had died the day before  
>after being pounded steadily with armor piercing 5.56 rounds from an automatic M14, and his Power armor. The<br>scribes requested that ALL the Brotherhood and Enclave armor be brought back so they can study the damage and  
>improve on it, much like what was trying to be done during the preparation years for the trip to Seattle. The 6<br>men, three Knights, one Star Paladin, and two Senior Paladins all make their way down First Avenue to their  
>counterparts that are stripping the armor away from the dead Enclave soldiers. As they walk, all the men are<br>silent. Collecting their dead brothers is always the worst job they can get ordered to do.

They reach their brothers and help them load the other two dead bodies onto the pack Brahmin's back, and  
>stuff the excess armor into the satchels on it's sides. It lets out a loud moo in discontent and the Brotherhood<br>squad of 12 all struggle, trying to shush the beast, knowing that it isn't native to the land. It was flown in from  
>DC to be bred, and used as a Pack Animal, because Intel from the Seattle Enclave notes that there is barely any<br>wildlife to be worried about, except the Mirelurks and mutated fish, plus the tribal locals. If any locals heard  
>the animal cry, they would have trouble, because someone would most likely investigate.<p>

The local gang from the day before had been a fluke, and had most likely attacked the Brotherhood because  
>they were startled. The logical explanation is that they wandered up on the BoS patrol, while looking for an<br>Enclave patrol to attack, and attacked out of instinct. Most local gangs would attack any Power armored soldier in  
>the area due to the terror the Enclave shrouded most of Washington with. The Brotherhood squad had been at the<br>wrong place, in the wrong cloths, at the wrong time, and they paid for it. When they got the Brahmin to stop  
>sounding, the group fell silent, looking for enemies that might have heard the call. Seconds pass with no dangerous<br>results to the noise, and the soldiers let loose a sigh of relief and begin to shove the Brahmin on. He grunts in  
>discontent, but moves reluctantly with the soldiers following close behind.<p>

On top of the 6 story West Wing of the UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinic, an Enclave sniper peers down his  
>scope at the Brotherhood soldiers that are walking South East down First Avenue with evil intentions. His 50<br>Caliber powered sniper rifle is loaded with 8 bullets, and another clip lies beside him with 8 more. He holds his  
>breath and counts down inside his head, "3..2…1…" Like he was taught before pulling the trigger…<p>

**So, I've posted this thing at least 8 times already, but I'm still getting used to the site, and something's always **  
><strong>wrong. Last time I posted it, there apperantly was no dialouge marks. It's making me really frustrated, but <strong>  
><strong>hopefully it'll work out this time. Hopefully.<strong>


	2. The balled of the headless front man

Chapter 2: The balled of the headless front man The bullet hit before they heard it, and the front man had hit the ground before they could react. Yet another Paladin dead at the hands of the Enclave army. Nothing new. When the power helmet exploded, it took a few seconds for instincts to kick in, but when they did, the whole recovery battalion was on the ground with their Laser rifles out faster than any of them had been taught in their advanced combat training. All of the soldiers scatter for cover under cars, behind buildings, under their own arms, but as everyone was looking out for themselves, no one had realized that their main objective was standing in the middle of the road mooing like it was being born. The Brahmin stands there, calling frantically and shifting his feet, remembering what he had been trained to do, stand unless ordered differently. He wants to move but he doesn t because he's afraid of the chastisement he would receive if he did. He just waits until an order is given, not really understanding what s going on. The beast sits down due to the wait on his back, and the fact that he's not moving. Or at least that s what the soldiers think. The cow had been shot in the head by one of the 50 caliber bullets that sat, eagerly, in the chamber of the sniper rifle. The Brotherhood soldiers would have to carry the dead bodies, and supplies, back to the HQ. It was their orders to return with the dead men. Besides, it wasn t the first time they had to.

The Star Paladin, who was over the Operation, was steadily searching the sky line for any hints of the sniper's whereabouts, from his crouched position behind a burnt out car, with his Plasma rifle loaded and ready to fire. He knew it might not reach the sniper if he was up high, but it might spook him into leaving them alone. Another gunshot rings out through the streets, so Star Paladin Sean Dowhan begins to look around; praying none of his men had been hurt.

Dowhan had seen a lot over his 10+ years in the Brotherhood. Things from the complete push of the Enclave out of the Capital Wasteland, the S-DE assault that pushed them out, the reconnection between the Mojave Chapter and the East Coast coalition, the division of the East Coast coalition then the fights that ensued afterwards, the reuniting of those two chapters, the death of the most popular Elder of the Brotherhood, the reign of the most tyrannical Elder (New York chapter), and the Steel Wars, both of the them. All the while, he had been fighting strong with the Brotherhood. He had lost a leg (thank Steel for Pre-War bionics), most of his skin, and almost his life, ran a radio station, designed power armor, ran his own outpost in the Mojave, and gotten married. The marriage didn't last, sadly, due to his wife's untimely death. Still, Dowhan served the Steel with all his heart, it being his own family, his happiness.

Now, during this battle, that wasn t really a battle, he feared not only for himself, but for his friends. All the higher rankers were all veterans of the DC chapter, seeing not only combat there, but during the taking of the State of Maxson from the NCR's hands, in the Mojave chapter, and in the New York chapter. The Paladin that had been shot down what seemed like hours ago, when really it was almost minutes, was a good friend of his that goes by the name of Hickman. Paladin CJ Hickman. As Dowhan sweeps his gaze back and forth from man to man, building to building, he hears a laughing over the eerie silence that fell upon the group in between shots. Paladin Vincent Damon James Fergon sits on the ground across the street in small alley way with blood pouring from a hole in this Power armor's leg. Dowhan gasped as he thought of his friend losing his leg. Vincent was one of the best soldiers in the chapter, being a Knight Commander and second in command of the Operation. What surprises the Star Paladin is that Vincent's brother, Senior Paladin Mack Catalyst Fergon reaches down with the same giddy laugh and pulls out the bullet from his brother s leg. It had only pierced the armor, and no more. The bullet had barely nicked the skin. Vince had been standing in the street sweeping the skyline behind the buildings he was hiding between, when he decided to get cocky and shoot his middle finger into the air, an open invitation to kill him.

"Lucky break!" Dowhan yells across the street, "You won't get that luck next time!"

"What's gonna happen? You goin'ta shoot me? We all know that what happened to Hickman was a fluke! These Enclave bastards can't shoot straight for their life!" Vincent called back through laughter. He stands up with no trouble at all, makes his way into the street, and does a few mocking jumping jacks in disrespect, jumping back into the alley way when another shot rings out through the city. At that moment, when the Enclave soldier shot at Vincent, Dowhan caught it. He caught a flash from the bullet exiting the sniper rifle's barrel. I got em boys! He's on top of that hospital! Dowhan says, while pointing towards the UWMC building. Lets give him hell! Several soldiers on Dowhans side of the street start firing towards the building that is northwest to them. Vincent and Mack sit there on the other side of the street, sharing a cigarette, laughing about the foolish battle. Almost as soon as the Brotherhood squad starts shooting, the Enclave soldier starts firing as fast as his rifle will go. His accuracy is remarkable, as he drops two Knights, who were too stupid to keep their heads inside cover, as soon as the exchange starts. Poor bastards! Vince screams through the gunfire. His brother stands up, after putting his helmet back on, and takes off across the street avoiding fire from the attention he was bringing on himself by running in a zig zag line. He hops over a car that sits in the middle of the road, and by-passes the dead Brahmin, before lunging over the car that Dowhan was crouching behind. Vince sits with his back pressed to the wall with his helmet on his knee and a cigarette in his mouth.

"What's the situation?" asks the Senior Paladin while crouching down behind the burnt out car which served as Dowhan s cover.

"Just peachy," Dowhan replied in a rather sarcastic tone. "Get your damn brother over here! He's the only one of us with a chance of hitting the bastard!"

At that, Mack takes back off across the street, careful to avoid gunfire again. He reaches his brother and drops to his knees. The Brotherhood soldiers fire everything they've got at the sniper, futilely due to the fact that the sniper is nearly half a mile away from them, and he's well covered. The noise factor leaves all speech barely audible.

"Dowhan wants you over there!" Mack screams.

"What?" Vincent asks, trying to make his voice heard over the gunfire.

The gunfire stops a split second before Mack repeats himself, rather loudly, to his brother, "DOWHAN WANTS YOU OVER THERE!" leaving him standing there looking foolish to the rest of the soldiers.

Vincent lets out a small chuckle and smirks at his brother with his patented devilish grin that usually sets people uneasy. Mack has gotten used to it though. He replies in a smooth, charming tone, I know, I heard you the first time. before struggling to get up in his Power armor. He grabs his customized M-16 Marksman Carbine; extended mags, high powered scope, and camouflaged print on the body, with the words All American on the side of it, and takes off across the street to his CO to see what he needs.

Vincent practically walks across the street, tempting the Enclave soldier to shoot him, but he doesn't. The Enclave soldier sits with his back pressed up against the wall he had been steadying himself with, breathing heavily. The last shot to come his way was a plasma goo glob and had nearly taken his head off, burning through the left hand side of his Power helmet. It hadn t touched his face at all, but it left him shaken up. He wondered what he would do: sit there and continue to fight, or head back to base. He knew they couldn't hit him, and he had the whole stairwell in the building rigged with counter measures, so he decides to stay and fight, grabbing his rifle again and popping a new clip into place, and unloading the spent shell in the chamber.

Vincent sits on his knees with his rifle propped on the car in front of him and Dowhan, and aims down the scope. "I don't know if it's set straight." He whispers to Dowhan, "I haven't used it for long range in a while." The street was quiet again, with no one but Dowhan and Vincent talking. Cody "Wolf" Taylor, the other Senior Paladin, sits beside the Knight Captain, who's name is Jose Cortes, smoking a cigarette in silence, his Power helmet resting in his lap and his Ak-47 Assault rifle lying beside him. Cortes sits with his legs kicked out in front of him, with his Tri-Beam laser rifle in his lap. He had run out of ammo already, so he was pretty much useless.

Dowhan looks to Vincent and says in his most sarcastic tone ever, "Well then use your eyes and throw the damn thing at him! I don t care if it has never been set, do you really think that any of us could even remotely hit him with these damn energy weapons?" Vincent shrugs off the harsh words, leaving it to Dowhan being stressed, and looks down the scope. As soon as his Power helmet visor hits the scope lens, a shot rings out through the city. Vincent drops backwards onto his back, leaving his rifle sitting on the car. He sits there a few seconds not moving. Dowhan jumps backwards himself at the sound of the shot, but when he sees Vince lying on the ground, bounds forward to the fallen friend. He quickly searches his body for gunshot holes, but finds none. The Star Paladin wonders what could ve happened, before grabbing his friends rifle to try and shoot the sniper himself.

Catalyst calls out from across the street in a frantic tone, "What the fuck happened to Vince!"

Dowhan hesitates then replies, "He's down I'm sorry" The rest of the soldiers sit in their positions wondering whether they should start firing or not. Paladin Conor Moore takes advice from his instincts and begins to unload his Laser rifle, stopping only when Dowhan lets loose on him, saying, "What are you doing soldier? Did I tell you to start shooting?"

Mack falls to the ground and runs his hands through his un-helmeted hair, with a blank expression on his face. He tries to speak but nothing comes out but a squeak. Several seconds pass before the words just come rushing out of his mouth. "OH MY FUCKING GOD. HE S DEAD!" A big hint of surprise lines his voice, not only from his brothers death, but something deeper. Several years before, Vincent had willingly sold his soul to Satan on a dark night in a bunker in the Mojave. He had asked Satan for immortality and the ability of a stable shooting hand for 24 years, in exchange for his life and services. The contract would be void unless Vincent killed people for the devil. Every person he killed's soul would go straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. The only person who knew about this transaction was his brother, Mack, that's why it surprised him so much. Mack takes off across the road in a blind attempt to get to his dead brother. Another shot rings out, leaving the Senior Paladin lying face down in the street with a pool of blood surrounding him. At that moment, when he felt his brother was in peril, his heart gets a kick start and Vincent hops off the ground, not really dead but merely in shock from the close encounter. He throws himself over the car barricade to the position of his brother in the street. Vincent drops to his knees and hangs over his brother, practically seething with rage. This one Enclave soldier was causing them way too much trouble. Vincent was going to end it. End the fighting once and for all so he could get his brother home to be cared for. Time slows to a stop as he looks to his left to see his guardian demon: a shadow, a silhouette of Vincent s shape and form. The beast that kept him safe during times like this. The being that stopped the bullet from piercing his leg. The creature that kept the bullet from actually hitting him when he was setting up to kill the Enclave soldier. He shook his head, just like he always had when he visited, giving Vince a feeling that he had messed up. Vincent feared messing up because doing so could cost him. Very dearly. The demon walks over and lays his hand on Vincent's shoulder, standing directly in the path of the Enclave soldier's sight.

Time speeds back to normal, with the Enclave soldier aiming down his sight towards Vincent. Dowhan screams to his friend, "Get back to cover dammit!" The Enclave soldier pulls the trigger with his sights lined directly up with Vincent s Power helmet. The bullet doesn't even reach the helmet. It gets to the point in which the demon is standing, and then disappears. Vincent nods toward the shadow apparition and gets up with his brother in his hands. Blood pours from the hole in Catalyst s armor, seeping all over Vincent. It leaves his hands and legs drenched in the life force of his last relative. As he walks towards the car cover him and Dowhan were hiding behind, a tear slips down his face and stops when it hits the bottom of his power helmet. All the while, the demon walks silently beside him, blocking the bullets that the frustrated Enclave soldier unloads, shell after shell. Vincent sits his brother down on the ground beside Dowhan, who has his back pressed to the car with Vincent's rifle in his hands, and grabs his rifle from his commander. I'm going to kill him. The rest of the soldiers sit in quiet, waiting to be told what to do.

Wolf calls over from the other side of the building that is covering Dowhan and Vincent from the left. "Is Mack okay? Can we shoot or not?"

Dowhan hesitates once again, wondering why he has to keep delivering the bad news, before saying, "No. He's not. If we don t get him out of here right now, he'll be as much use to us as Hickman, Gervais, and Higgles."

"But they re dead?"

"Bingo dumbass."

Vincent sets up the Marksman Carbine in front of the shadow, on top of the car, and makes sure it's loaded. The Enclave soldier does the same with his rifle, hoping this time that he will hit his target. Vincent lines up the shot at the exact same time as the Enclave soldier. Just then, inches away from the Enclave soldier, a silhouette of a body flashes before his eyes, making him jolt back in excitement. The next thing to pop off in his face makes him wish he hadn't. Vincent's shaky shot (even with the demon's help) had landed on the Enclave sniper's right arm, flinging him backwards on his ass, and his rifle tumbling off the side of the hospital. He lays there gasping for breath as the pain rips through the entire right side of his body. He wasn t trained in first aid. Not many Enclave snipers were. They were commissioned to get in and out, getting really no action in their direction. Blood pours all over the floor of the roof through the hole in his power armor. Minutes passed and he began to feel woozy. He needs to take action. The Enclave soldier pulls out his viroblade and begins to rip open his armor, throwing sparks every which way. Once he makes it through he begins to put pressure on the wound, sending a gush of pain through his arm. He screams out in pain and lays his head back on the ground.

Several hundred yards away, Vincent is helping unload the pack Brahmin. Things were strewed everywhere from the animal's death, but it seems that the most important things were trapped under the beast. Wolf and Vincent both lift the animal while Cortes and Dowhan pull things out. A Knight named Damien Lake takes care of Mack. Mack's armor is stripped off, leaving him in nothing but a set of Mk1 Army issue stealth reconnaissance armor that every soldier is required to wear. The bullet had gone clean through into the man's spinal cord, leaving something more to be desired. Damien has his armor off also, with his med kit out. He's the trained medic of the squad, behind Cortes, who was trying to pull bodies and armor out from under the dead cow. The last two Paladins stand behind Damien dumbfounded, trying to offer any support they can.

One of them speaks up. "I have a few Med-X in my chest compartment." says Paladin Mark Cody.

"Well give em here dammit!" The medic exclaims, "All I'm working with is fucking Stimpacks!" Mark reluctantly digs around in his armor's chest cavity and produces a small vile of Med-X. It s not a normal syringe though. It looks jury rigged, like it was put together in a dark basement. Which it was.

"What is this shit?" Damien asks. "These are savage chems. You trying to get court marshaled or something?"

"You really want to try that?" replies Mark, "I'll make you regret it."

"Yeah I bet you will."

"You trying to start something little boy?'

"No, I'm looking to end something."

By this time the two soldiers are up in each other's face. Damien stands there, physically smaller because of his unarmored body, but he doesn t back down. Mark has all his armor on, even his helmet, and is smirking like a madman under it. The only person who witnesses what happens is the other Paladin, Conor Moore, and he can barely believe his eyes.

Damien reacts will faster speed than even the B.A.S. snipers, reaching up and practically ripping the Paladin's helmet off before a punch can even be thrown. Mark stands there, struck dumb by the speed and doesn t act the way he should. Damien lands three fists on the man's face before the Paladin does any thing. He stumbles but quickly regains his posture and shoves the smaller man. He falls back, tripping over the dying Senior Paladin, practically jolting Vince to act. He had been watching the altercation with interest before his brother was brought into it. He hadn t heard what started it, but the rising voices had caught his attention.

He flies toward the Paladin with unimaginable speed, for someone with Power armor on, and plows into him, knocking him into the wall behind him. Vince grabs his jaw and hits him twice, before punching his chest plate (compartment) and denting it all the way to the soldier s actual chest. He goes back for the face again and lands two more before he hears the crunch of the man s nose. Satisfaction. Cody falls to the ground, screaming in pain. It rings out through the streets like an eerie siren. All the other soldiers jump to attention when they hear the scream, and rush over, dropping exactly what they are doing.

"What the hell is this!" yells Dowhan, "A Civil-fucking-war?" Cortes grabs Cody and drags him out the way with a laser pistol pointed at him. Vincent has Wolf and Moore both pointing their rifles at him.

"Him and that Knight got in a scuffle and my fucking brother was caught in it. Get these fucking guns off me!" Vincent shoves the guns away, and Wolf and Moore reluctantly drop them. "The Knight was shoved on top of my dying ass brother and I jumped into action."

"That gives you no reason to brutalize this fucking soldier! You should've alerted me!" Dowhan screamed back.

"I'm the second in fucking command of this operation. I don t need orders to act on my own. If my brother dies, I'm going to end every last fucking one of you."

Damien was right behind the crowed at the time, waiting for his chance to jump in. When he sees it, he takes it. "If I may, I can expla-"

"Shut your fucking mouth." Dowhan says. He says it in a calm, collected, tone but flies right back off the handle when he turns back to Vincent. "You could've seriously injured Mark! The might not be able to fix his nose! If he talks, you could be court marshaled. Do you really think that if we save your brother, he could deal with that? They'll ship you back east and discharge you. Assaulting a soldier like that..." Vincent looks to the Paladin's nose which is mashed like prewar mashed potatoes. Blood is everywhere and the man is leaning against a wall with a gun pushed to his head, in pain.

"Listen here you mother fucking Ghoul," Dowhan had gotten used to the Ghoul jives, and really was proud of his race. He was the only East Coast Coalition soldier that was of his nature. "my brother is hurt, that could have hurt him worse. At least he will live without his fucking nose. I don t know what the fight started over, or what happened, but my brother got drug into this, so that means I'm in it to. You!" He points to the Knight, "Get over here."

Damien walks over to Vincent, "Sir?"

"Don t fucking sir me. I work for a fucking living. Tell this man what happened."

"I was working on Mack when Mark offered me some Med-X. It turns out the mother fucker has savage chems. He had it in his chest cavity. When I said something about it, he replied in an instigating tone, and began to threa-"

Mark interrupts, "I did no such thing!"

Cortes delivers a swift kick to the man s armor, saying, "¡cállate!" meaning shut up in Spanish.

Damien continues, "Anyway...he gave me the chems, and I inspected them to find out they were not our military grade chems, you know, the kind we sterilize for our use. They look like some of the drugs the locals use, so I thought he might be buying them from an outside source. We re only supposed to use the chems that are given to us in our First Aid Loadout before we set out. Since we are so used to the sterile chems, the savage ones might not react well with our bodies, doing more harm then good. It could've killed Mack."

"Senior Paladin Fergon to you soldier." Vincent states.

"Good job!" Exclaims Cortes, the head field medic of Seattle U. "That logic was spot on!"

Damien blushes a bit before saying, "I read it out of our medic field manual."

"Back to the problem at hand..." Dowhan says, bringing the conversation back to topic seeing how it had wandered off to some medical lesson. If Vincent wasn't so mad, he most likely would've joined in on the medical conversation, because he himself was an advanced First Aid Field Medic. "If what Damien says is true, then Mark could also get in serious trouble..." At that, Vincent caught his scapegoat, "I'll have to turn you in for chem misuse when we get back to base."

"Now wait a minute..." Vincent smirks, "I've got a proposition for you Mark. Dowhan, you're going to love this."

"Talk." The Paladin replies.

"You don't squeal on me, we don't squeal on you. They'll discharge for sure for chem misuse. It's a win win."

"I'll...I'll take it." Mark is still angry with the whole squad. He was a local conscript, being recruited at the beginning of the campaign, and he had plenty of cartel lines he could draw from, but he didn't want to be discharged. He wanted to see the world, go places, and most importantly, be safe. He wasn't safe in the little gang that he ran with before being recruited. It was small, yet had a lot of income, but it could easily be over run and he could be murdered, or worse, imprisoned. Plus with the rapid success of the Brotherhood in putting fear into most of the street gangs, he knew due to his year in the Brotherhood that they could easily put a stop to all the gangs in the area. Except, maybe, the Enclave.

"Oh, and one other thing..."

"What?"

"You re going with me to find that bastard that shot my brother."

**So, I tried my best to put a lot more feeling into this chapter. It s taken me a while to finish it, due to the inability to get to a computer, and the fact that I lost the flash drive that it was saved on. Nevertheless, there are no excuses. I promise that the next chapter will be done within the month. If it isn t, you can all kick me.**

**After an hour of fixing this, I'm done. Something went wrong again and the dialogue didn't show up. Such a terrible waste of time. **


End file.
